It’s been a day to reminisce about the Jesus Movement and the 1970s. In 1975, I was sophomore in college and teamed up with Bill Boyd (my future brother-in-law!) to host a Christian Music Show on Sunday mornings at WDAV. About all we had were a half-dozen albums by II Chapter of Acts, Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill, Barry McGuire, and later Pat Terry & James Ward. Keith Green came along a bit later.
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Today, at church, we had a delightful 20 minute set by Randy Stonehill. He still has the wry sense of humor and commanding presence. “King of Hearts” brought tears to my eyes.
This afternoon, I watched “Fallen Angel,” the documentary on the life of Larry Norman. Larry was a revolutionary and a prophet and a musical genius. The movie will have its premier this week in Nashville. Here’s a preview:
More info on the film’s web site, here: http://www.fallenangeldoc.com/
In 1978, and 1979, I was part of the Inter-Varsity graduate group at Stanford. We arranged for a public lecture by Larry Norman (he brought his guitar and played a few songs as well), and then a full-bore concert by Randy Stonehill in the auditorium on campus. Randy brought the full band and played LOUD! But we loved it. Good times.
Here’s a clip of Larry singing one of his best-known songs, The Outlaw:
Here’s Randy singing King of Hearts:
I’m afraid James Ward and Pat Terry haven’t made it to YouTube, though I suppose there might be videos out there which will eventually be uploaded. They both have their own web sites though!
As always great reflections. The infancy of contemporary christian music in the 60’s and 70’s had a great influence bringing many young heart to Christ. Three Pat Terry LP’s still hold a place on my book shelf, concerts of a group named Dogwood (lead by Steve and Annie Chapman) and 2nd Chapter of Acts at “Aslan’s Lair” in Knoxville, and a christian coffie house in Nashville, were also memories of the young christian culture this area.
Don’t underestimate the significiance of the events we are a part of today. We are a part of history is in the making.
It was so good to see you mention Aslan’s Lair. Back then I briefly lived upstairs in the Lair with the family of Reverend Ken Schmitt and his family along with several students attending the U. of Tennessee. Living there and attending the concerts in that basement made such an impact on my life. The concerts were the highlight of my weeks there. We also prepared low cost but delicious meals and invited people from the nearby UT campus to come and share a low cost meal with us at the Lair at a minimal cost. Aslan’s Lair was a ministry of Christ’s Chapel which still has a worship center near the University of Tennessee. Your post above brought back such pleasant memories for me. Ken and Linda Schmitt have been in the mission filed for many years and continue to work in the area of helping get translations of God’s Word out to new groups of people in their own languages.
May God richly bless you,
Keith Hinkle